Philadelphia Eagles name Jason Kelce their Walter Payton nominee

Good news, folks: Jason Kelce is (probably) going to be fine.

While we won’t be able to track his practice status throughout the week, as the Philadelphia Eagles are on their Bye week and Nick Sirianni seems like the “cool camp counselor”-type of head coach who doesn’t make his team vigorously take the practice field on their week off, the head coach gave an encouraging update on his status on Monday, telling the assembled media that Kelce, Jordan Howard, Steven Nelson, and Patrick Johnson could all be back in time for Week 15.

After imagining the horrors of a final stretch of the season without Kelce in at center – read about that nightmare scenario here, if you’d like – it’s nice to know his knee is going to be good enough to keep Nate Herbig at guard where he belongs.

If this was all the news surrounding Kelce, it’d be a good news day for fans of the Eagles, but it’s not. No, in a move that feels sort of obvious but still came as a surprise, Kelce has been named the team’s entrant for the annual Walter Payton Man of the Year award,  where he’ll be duking it out – theoretically, not literally – with the best the NFL has to offer for its top off-field honor.

If there has ever been a member of the Philadelphia Eagles worthy of being named the Walter Payton Man of the Year, it’s certainly Jason Kelce.

The Philadelphia Eagles picked a very good Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee.

Every year, each NFL team is allowed to offer up one player for Walter Payton Man of the Year award considerations.

The award, named posthumously after ex-Chicago Bears running back/all-around good person Walter Payton, is meant to honor a player who steps above and beyond in his community and beyond, with 54 different players having been given the honor since its inception in 1970.

Sidebar: Why, you may ask, have 54 players been awarded an annual award initially commissioned in 1970? Well, that’s because, on three separate occasions, two players won the award via a tie. Pretty cool.

To date, three Philadelphia Eagles members have been named the Walter Payton Man of the Year, with Chris Long being the award’s most-recent recipient.

Could that number rise to four in 2022? Considering Jason Kelce is the Philadelphia Eagles’ current candidate, the answer should be a resounding yes.

The specific event in question that Kelce is being honored for is a fundraiser he took part in to raise money for the Eagles Autism Foundation over the summer. Instead of simply donating to the cause or hosting a formal dinner, Kelce took to the shore and raised $50,000 bartending at a bar in Sea Isle City on a Wednesday afternoon, a number he and his wife matched upon the event’s completion.

But wait, there’s more. Not only has Kelce been a fixture of the EAF over recent years, but he’s also lent his support to the following charities as per the Eagles’ official press release.

"(Kelce) has volunteered his time at a variety of organizations, including the Eagles Charitable Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, Ronald McDonald House (where he joined individuals from their camp for a field day at Lincoln Financial Field), Bringing Hope Home (where he joined families from BHH at a community event to paint and carve pumpkins in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month), and Liberty USO (where he teamed up with Dietz & Watson to feed military families)."

When you see it all together like that, it’s hard not to be proud of Kelce’s tenure in the City of Brotherly Love… well, more proud than everyone already is, considering he may go down as one of the best Philly athletes of all time.

On the field, Jason Kelce is an all-time player for the Philadelphia Eagles. He’s rapidly rising up the team’s all-time games played list, had started every game since the middle of the 2014 season, and remains the best zone blocking center in the NFL even at the tender age of 34. But it’s his off-field contributions to the community that really elevate Kelce up a notch and place him in an elite echelon of all-time people to play for the Philadelphia Eagles. Award or no award, that will remain true forever.